Moroccans took immigrants to desert, doctor says

The World - In Brief

October 8, 2005

MELILLA, Spain -- A doctor with the Spanish branch of Doctors Without Borders said Friday that he discovered hundreds of sub-Saharan immigrants, including women and children, had been rounded up by Moroccan security forces near the Spanish enclave Melilla and taken out to the desert near Algeria. The immigrants -- among thousands who have trekked in recent years across Africa to get to Europe -- were removed after nearly a dozen mass charges in recent weeks on the razor-wire fences that separate the Cueta and Melilla enclaves from Morocco. More than a dozen have been killed in the border rushes.